Seed Advanced Round 1 2026

Briar Grace-Smith (Ngāpuhi) is an award-winning writer and director of plays, screenplays, and short stories. Briar wrote the feature film The Strength of Water, directed Charm as part of the acclaimed omnibus Waru, and co-wrote, co-directed and acted in Cousins, an adaptation of Patricia Grace’s novel. She also co-directed and wrote for Rūrangi: Series 2 – Rising Lights. Her television writing credits include Fishskin Suit, This is Piki and Kaitangata Twitch (NZ) and Grace Beside Me and Swift Street (Australia). Briar is a recipient of the Arts Foundation Laureate Award and was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) in 2019 for services to theatre, television, and film. That same year, she and Ainsley Gardiner received the Sundance Merata Mita Directing Fellowship. In 2022, Briar was invited to join the Directors Branch of the Academy.

Michelle Ehlen is a non-binary queer filmmaker who has produced, written, directed, and acted in five award-winning features, including the first lesbian comedy trilogy (Butch Jamie, Heterosexual Jill, S&M Sally) and her newly released dramedy Maybe Someday. Her films have screened in over 100 festivals worldwide, won 22 awards, and have been distributed on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and Apple TV. Michelle is currently working on an upcoming documentary called Queering the Binary, a large-scale research project and docuseries exploring non-binary identities and experiences.

Mukilan Thangamani is a Writer/Director who was born in India, raised in Botswana and New Zealand, and now lives in Australia. He credits this nomadic upbringing for motivating his love of cultural diversity and passion for wanting to see it reflected more in media. He's done assignment work for the New Zealand Film Commission, won multiple writing contests, and was also featured on The Tracking Board’s annual ‘Young & Hungry List’.

Most recently Philippa produced Loren Taylor’s feature film debut The Moon is Upside Down awarded Best First Feature at A-List festival POFF Tallinn Black Nights. She is Executive Producer of Workmates and Paloma Schneideman’s Sundance hit Big Girls Don’t Cry, the first feature film to emerge from the pop-up film intensive A Wave in the Ocean which she co-directs alongside founder Jane Campion. The eight short films mentored by Philippa and Jane financed by A Wave in the Ocean premiered at the 2025 Venice Film Festival. AWITO 1 shorts by Todd Karehana, Ana Scotney, Mingjian Cui, Prisca Bouchet and Nick Mayow have gone on to win awards at NZIFF, Melbourne International Film Festival, the First International Film Festival in China and Show Me Shorts. Philippa is the Golden Globe and Emmy nominated producer of Jane Campion’s acclaimed television series Top of the Lake: China Girl and the NZ-shot first season Top of the Lake nominated for eight Emmys, two Golden Globes and which received recognition at the 2014 BAFTAS, PGA Awards among many others, and won AACTA Best Miniseries and NZ Television Awards Best Drama Series. Philippa produced Christine Jeff’s Rain, still the most recent NZ feature selected to screen in competition in Cannes; Toa Fraser’s Number 2 Sundance World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award winner; comedy horror hit Black Sheep, which premiered at TIFF Midnight Madness; Florian Habicht’s genre-bender Rubbings From a Live Man and Anthony McCarten’s debut Via Satellite.